Page 72 - EducationWorld March 2022

Books

management experience and 1992-2008), during
to the partnership. But which they transformed THE SILENT COUP: A HISTORY
essentially their enterprise PRC into the world’s busi- OF INDIA'S DEEP STATE
was driven by Whitney’s est factory. Josy Joseph
close connection with Aun- But since the global WESTLAND BOOKS
tie Zhang, wife of China’s financial crisis of 2008 Rs.699
prime minister Wen Jiabio and the rise of Xi Jin- Pages 306
in the early years of the ping, the CCP has begun
new millennium. Great to reassert its control of
Ocean bagged a $2.5 bil- PRC’s economy. China’s
lion contract to build the billionaire businessmen and ranked among the top The BJP-NDA
country’s biggest air cargo such as Jack Ma and oth- 30 countries worldwide in government has
terminal in Beijing and lat- ers who demanded greater the indices of institutions learnt a lot from the
er to build Bulgari, a luxe freedom have been ruth- monitoring the governance 19-month Emergency
billion dollar hotel and lessly suppressed. Unlike of nations. But in 2020, declared by Indira
condominium complex in here in India where the 20 the Economist Intelligence Gandhi in 1975-76
the national capital. million strong neta-babu Unit (EIU) assessed it as a
The main takeaway brotherhood — another “flawed democracy”. The
from this revealing mem- mafia — is subject to the Swedish institute V-Dem facts, Joseph details how
oir is the sheer scale of checks and balances of re- has described the Indian the incumbent political es-
corruption and cronyism election, judicial scrutiny state as an “electoral au- tablishment at the Centre
in the world’s second larg- even if slothful, and media tocracy”, while Freedom has insidiously captured
est economy which so im- exposure, there are no House, the US-based power and control of the
presses lefties and bolshies constraints on the CCP global democracy watch- nation and is eroding the
in third world countries leadership. dog has demoted India democratic rights of In-
including India. Even mildly inconve- from “free” to “partly free”. dia’s citizens. In this book
The plain truth is that nient citizens disappear In The Silent Coup which has unsurprisingly
the Communist party of into oblivion in a flash as (2021), Josy Joseph, a received little publicity,
China is not a super-effi- have Auntie Zhang, Wen Delhi-based investigative Joseph offers insights on
cient ideology-driven force Jiabio and Lady Whitney. journalist with excellent how the establishment and
working for the people, but On September 5, 2017 credentials (Times of governments at the Centre
an old-fashioned 100-mil- while on her way to her India, The Hindu) and and states have subverted
lion strong mafia which luxury office in the Bulgari currently founder-director the democratic rights of
rules China with an iron Complex in Beijing, Lady of Confluence Media — “a citizens, to attain new
fist. In modern China Whitney (50) disappeared platform agnostic investi- political, commercial, and
nothing is owned by the and has not been seen gative journalism outfit” ideological objectives.
State. Everything includ- since. Desmond Shum has — poses a fundamental The Deep State ac-
ing the 1.5 million strong written this tell-all memoir question: “How can a co- cording to Joseph is a
nuclear weapons armed while living in the UK with terie of influential people, plethora of compromised
People’s Liberation Army their son, Ariston. stationed mostly in a single law enforcement agencies
is owned and controlled by DILIP THAKORE city, unsettle democratic such as RAW, NIA, NCB,
CCP. And the luxurious ep- institutions, intimidate CBI, ED, the Central and
icurean lifestyles that the millions into silence, send State Police, CRPF etc,
children of party members Compelling thousands to jail, terrorise promoted to protect the
enjoy in modern China its business class into sup- unity and integrity of the
— recounted in detail by wake-up call porting it, bully the media country. These agencies
Shum — dwarfs everything into becoming its publicity are controlled by pliant
in neighbouring India. The arm, convert the judiciary bureaucrats, who over the
rapid rise and affluence P UNTIL THE into a timid institution, years have enacted draco-
of PRC in the past half year 2012, bar- and even silence the most nian laws such as MISA,
century is the outcome Uring a two year courageous of its civil TADA, POTA, DAA, UAPA,
of China’s people — the blip in the Emergency servants?” AFSPA, NSA to side-step
world’s best entrepreneurs period (1975-76), India Subsequently by or cut short the jurisdic-
— who were given limited was widely acknowledged presenting persuasive evi- tion of the courts and di-
time windows (1978-89 as free and democratic, dence, and well-researched lute the fundamental rights

72 EDUCATIONWORLD MARCH 2022